Coming off his Golden Globe win (and an Academy Award nomination) for The Martian, the actor/ writer/ producer hit Sundance for a day, not to promote a new film but to create awareness for his charity project Water.org. Sponsored by Stella Artois, Damon and his partner Gary White participated in a one-hour discussion on the subject of ending the global water crisis within this generation. This big goal could be accomplished, he said, if people bought 660 million of the glass chalices the company created for just this purpose. The campaign is called ‘Buy A Lady A Drink’, simply because it is 95% women in the Third World that are affected by the water crisis. It is them who have no chances and no time to pursue an education that could result in a job, because their entire life is taken up by merely surviving.

Damon started the project after he went on a water collection excursion with a girl in Zambia: "It was one of those epiphany moments for me. She came home from school in this little village, she was 13 years old, and we walked about a mile to pick up one of these cans of water and I got to talk to her for 20 minutes on this walk. She was living kind of a normal life, almost like a child in the West, except for having to walk a mile to get the water. And I asked her‚ what do you wanna do when you grow up? Are you gonna stay in this little village?’ and she said 'no, no, I’m gonna go to the big city, I wanna be a nurse.’ And there was something in the way she said it that reminded me of Ben Affleck and me, when we were teenagers and we said‚ we’re gonna go to New York, we’re gonna be actors! And I really related to this kid. She reminded me of myself at that age. When I was driving away after this experience I realized that – had someone not put this water well a mile from her hut, this kid would not be in school, she would not have any dreams of being a nurse, because she would be scavenging for water all day every day. It’s a lesson in human existence. Because someone put that well near her house her life changed completely. It’s not just the question of life and death, it’s also that when people lack access, they lack chances and dreams, too.“

As far as raising money, Damon says, he’s very happy that this is one issue "that is actually bi-partisan in this country. Everyone across the political spectrum gets behind this. Certainly governments in the affected countries need to get behind the idea of building wells too, but our message – if there is one – is a welcoming one and we’ve never been denied access.“

It is obvious to everyone involved that no charity in the world gets much attention unless there’s a big name behind it – but Matt Damon is much more than a spokesperson: he actually started Water.org. "Of course we originally wanted Ben Affleck!“ co-founder Gary White joked to big laughter and applause.

Watch Water.org’s video here. And see the Buy A Lady A Drink campaign here.

Elisabeth Sereda